The first thing Adrian noticed when he woke was the silence.
Not the calm kind — the suffocating one.
The air in the Echo Realm no longer hummed or whispered. It just... waited.The world itself seemed to hold its breath.
Adrian sat up, wincing. His body felt heavier than before, as if gravity had grown teeth. Every movement sent sparks of gold and violet light flickering through his veins. The two powers — opposites by nature — were fighting inside him like fire and oil.
He exhaled slowly, trying to steady his breathing. The golden scars on his arms pulsed, fading to violet, then gold again."Still not playing nice," he muttered.
The First Hero's spirit materialized beside him, faint and translucent, her form flickering in and out. Her once-calm expression now showed unease."The fusion within you is unstable," she said. "You've taken something no mortal should possess."
Adrian smirked weakly. "Yeah, well, that's kind of my specialty."
She didn't return the smile. "If you lose control, Aurelian will rise through you. His essence lingers inside that light — waiting."
Adrian's hand tightened around his sword's hilt. "Then I'll make sure it doesn't happen."
"You say that," she whispered, "but tell me — when you closed your eyes, did you see him?"
Adrian froze. He had.
Each time he blinked, behind the darkness, there was a glimpse — the faint outline of Aurelian's silhouette, smiling, watching, whispering.
He shook the image from his head. "Doesn't matter. I'll bury him again."
The First Hero looked at him sadly. "You can't bury light, Adrian. It finds every crack."
Before he could respond, the ground beneath them shuddered. A tremor rippled through the Echo Realm, and cracks of radiant gold split across the dark floor.
Adrian rose instantly, his instincts screaming. "He's leaking through."
"No," she said softly. "You are."
Hours later — if time still had meaning here — Adrian wandered through the desolate ruins of what once resembled a city.The Echo Realm had shifted again, reshaped by his unstable aura.Black towers bled golden light from their seams. The air shimmered with warped reflections, showing fragments of two worlds trying to merge.
He passed the remnants of a broken statue — a hero's effigy, sword raised toward the heavens.Now, it wept liquid gold from its eyes.
Adrian's reflection in the metallic puddle stared back — half his face glowed faintly, his left eye now shimmering gold while the right burned violet.
He knelt, touching the surface.For a moment, he saw not himself — but Aurelian, his calm smile breaking into a grin.
"Do you feel it?""The light doesn't corrupt, Adrian. It reveals."
Adrian's hand trembled. "Get out of my head."
"I can't. You let me in."
The reflection laughed, the ripples distorting its form into something monstrous — half divine, half void.
Adrian punched the water, scattering the image.When he looked up, the sky had changed color — gold bleeding into violet, swirling like two storms clashing endlessly.
He continued walking, but something was different.
Everywhere he stepped, the world seemed to wake up.Echoes emerged — not the wandering fragments of memory he once summoned, but solid, sentient forms shaped by his thoughts.
A child with no eyes walked beside him, holding a flower made of light.An armored knight knelt before him, murmuring, "Master of Balance."A thousand whispers followed, some pleading, some praying.
Adrian clenched his teeth. "I'm not your master. I'm not your god."
But they didn't stop.Every word they spoke fed the thing inside him. Every ounce of awe and devotion made the golden glow spread further across his skin.
Aurelian's voice returned, softer now, almost kind.
"This is what they wanted, Adrian. Someone to follow. Someone to believe in."
"I don't need worship."
"You need purpose. Just like them."
Adrian's steps faltered. For a moment, the words stung — because deep down, they were true.
He had spent so long fighting to exist, to matter.Now, the universe itself was watching him, whispering his name.
"Shut up," he hissed. "I'm nothing like you."
"You're everything like me. You just haven't accepted it yet."
Then came the scream.
Not human. Not divine. Something in between.
Adrian turned toward the horizon — and saw a rift tear open in the air.From it poured tendrils of golden fire, wrapping around a cluster of shadowed figures. He recognized them immediately — Remnants, the corrupted souls of the fallen, drawn once again to his power.
They howled in agony as the light burned them.
"No!" Adrian shouted, sprinting forward. "Stop!"
But the light didn't listen.It poured from him.
He looked down — his hands were glowing, uncontrollably, golden veins crawling up his arms like vines of molten glass.
He tried to suppress it, but the harder he fought, the brighter it burned.The Remnants screamed louder, their bodies turning to dust under the divine radiance.
"You're cleansing them," Aurelian whispered. "You're freeing them."
"Freeing?!" Adrian roared. "I'm killing them!"
"Killing? You misunderstand. Death and salvation are the same. You just lack the faith to see it."
The last of the Remnants vanished, leaving only silence — and the stench of ash.
Adrian fell to his knees, panting, trembling with fury.His hands were shaking. His heart raced.
He had sworn to protect the lost.And now he was the one erasing them.
That night — or what passed for night in this realm — Adrian built a fire.He sat beside it, staring into the flames.For the first time, the Echo Realm felt too small, too fragile for the storm inside him.
The First Hero appeared again, her form flickering weakly. "You're losing control."
Adrian didn't answer.
"You have to let go of the light," she said. "It's not yours to wield."
He looked at her, eyes glowing in the firelight. "And if I do, he wins. The world burns."
"Then we find another way."
"There isn't another way!" he shouted. The fire flared in response, twisting into shapes — faces of the people he had lost, the kingdom that betrayed him, the allies who died believing in him.
He clenched his fists. "Every time I hold back, someone dies. Every time I try to be better, I lose more. Maybe the problem isn't the light. Maybe it's me."
The First Hero stepped closer, her tone breaking. "Adrian, listen to me—"
But the air exploded.
Waves of golden-violet light surged outward, scattering her projection and lighting up the entire realm.Adrian screamed as the two energies collided inside him, tearing at his soul.
Images flashed — battles, faces, moments — all collapsing into one vision:Aurelian's smile.The world burning under a second sun.And himself — standing at its center, haloed in gold and violet, worshiped by millions.
He fell to his knees, clutching his head. "No... no, I won't become that... I won't..."
But the light whispered back.
"You already are."
When the chaos subsided, Adrian was alone again.The fire had burned out, leaving behind only scorched ground.The cracks in the realm had widened, and through them, he could now see glimpses of the mortal world — cities trembling under strange daylight, people crying in fear of a sky that wouldn't turn dark.
The light had begun to leak through him.
He stood, his reflection shimmering in the air. The golden and violet glows no longer clashed — they had merged.His aura burned with impossible brilliance, neither holy nor cursed.
He took a deep breath, the words leaving his lips like a vow:"If I have to burn to stop you, then I'll burn everything — even myself."
The sky trembled at his words.Somewhere beyond, Aurelian's laughter echoed faintly — not cruel, not mocking, but approving.
"At last, you sound like me."
Adrian's jaw tightened. "Then I'll kill that voice too."
He turned toward the horizon, where the cracks between realms widened like bleeding wounds.Each one pulsed with light, a bridge between the divine and the mortal.
Adrian raised his sword. It pulsed in sync with his heartbeat — violet at first, then golden, then something entirely new.
"World of gods or world of men," he whispered, "I'll end this balance your way — permanently."
And as he walked forward, every step ignited the ground beneath him.
The Echo Realm followed.The world trembled.And the Light that had once been holy began to fear him.